Manage holiday chaos with OneNote and SkyDrive

I know it's still early, but I'm already thinking about the holidays and what an inevitable cluster it is when trying to coordinate between friends, family, and travel. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays. But I'm constantly thinking, "There's got to be a better way to keep track of the chaos!" To that end, let me demonstrate how OneNote 2010 can help you manage your holiday madness.

Imagine the following:

• Your family is flying to the Northwest from Indiana. It's not just your Mom and Dad, but your sister, brother and their kids. They didn't coordinate flights and hotels. So, now you've got 4 different flights and 2 different hotels to track.
   
• You've got three friends (also with kids) that are coming to stay for the holidays. Two of them are vegan, and one of the kids has diabetes. So, now you have some important dietary considerations to plan for.
   
• You're receiving a growing number of wish lists from family and friends for gifts that you have to find, compare prices for, and then purchase. Everybody is finicky in their tastes and few people like gift cards anymore.
   

So, you get to deal with the holiday shopping craze on top of travel logistics and food requirements for a group of people. Sweet!

Don't fret! This is where OneNote shines.

The first step to restoring your sanity is to create a OneNote notebook and share it on the Web. "Sharing" the notebook can mean either of two things: You can keep the notebook private but access it from multiple computers or from your cell phone. Or, if you prefer, you can actually share the contents of the notebook with other people, such as your friends or family. When shared with others, a Web-based OneNote notebook can be viewed edited by multiple people at the same time without anyone having to check out any files or having to worry about saving over someone else's changes.

Create a shared notebook from your PC

Open OneNote 2010 on your computer, and then follow these steps:

1. In OneNote 2010, click the File tab, and then click New.
2. Under Store Notebook On, click Web.
3. Under Name, type a name or description for the notebook (for example, Family Holiday 2010).
4. Under Web Location, sign into your Windows Live SkyDrive account and then select a folder where you want to store the notebook.
5. Click Create notebook and you’re done! 

Create a shared notebook from SkyDrive

You can also create a shared notebook from within a Web browser. Follow these steps:

1. In your Web browser, go to http://office.live.com and sign in to your account.
   (Don't have one? Start here — it's free!)
2. Click New, and then click OneNote notebook.
3. Type a name or description for the notebook.
4. Under Share with, you can leave the Just me default option, or you can click Change if you want to share the notebook with others.
5. Click Save. 

While viewing the notebook in the OneNote Web app, you can click the Open in OneNote button at any time to work on the notebook in the full version of OneNote 2010 on your computer.

Now that you’ve got your holiday notebook created on the Web, you can access it from anywhere in a Web browser (even from your smartphone) to jot down holiday shopping items you find, track flights, itineraries, hotel information, and holiday events. If you opt to share the Web notebook with your friends and family, you can have them fill in their own details about flights, food preferences, and wish list items.

In a future blog post, I'll give you a closer look at some of the ways you can add content in OneNote. Meanwhile, give the SkyDrive notebook a try and post a comment below to let me know how OneNote is helping you to manage a busy holiday season.

-- Ayça Yüksel